The present invention relates to fluid supply systems, especially residential or commercial water supply system""s and more particularly to a water flow control system operable in response to continuous flow for more than a predetermined time to shut off the water supply thereby terminating flow after the predetermined time.
It is desirable to prevent the excessive flow of water and resultant damage in a home, apartment or business in case of a leakage, freezing or vandalism or electrical outage. Excess water flow may occur from a number of other causes. For example, a leaking toilet valve, while not causing damage, may allow water to flow for an extended period of time resulting in an excessive water bill. It has been suggested to accomplish this by measuring water flow and turning the system off after a predetermined volume of water has flowed. Such an approach is slow to react to modest leakage and major damage may have already occurred by the time the system reacts. It has also been suggested to prevent excessive flow and damage by monitoring a water pressure differential and disabling the flow if this differential becomes too great. This technique works well for catastrophic leaks, but has the disadvantage of never detecting minor leaks that can cause great damage over a period of time.
The present invention provides a technique for minimizing damage due to water leaks in residential, business or other buildings.
The invention comprises, in one form thereof, a water supply system and process of operating the system to avoid excess inadvertent water loss as might be caused, for example, by leaks, a plumbing fixture malfunction, vandalism or interruption of electricity to a heating system of more than a predetermined time period. Water flow is monitored and the flow disabled if the monitoring indicates the detected flow has continued uninterrupted for a predetermined time interval. Flow interruption is achieved by removing electrical drive from a normally closed solenoid operated water valve. The system is reset or initialized to await a subsequent detection of water flow if the detected flow ceases prior to expiration of the predetermined time interval. The system operates substantially independent of the volume of water flow.
An advantage of the present invention is that the water system is shut off in response to detected water flow exceeding a predetermined time rather than depending on less leak indicative pressure changes or total flow measurements.